With ‘Duck Dynasty,” what you see is what you get

By DOUG McDONOUGH dmcdonough@hearstnp.com

Published 11:32 am, Monday, September 21, 2015

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Doug McDonough/Plainview Herald Mayor Pro Tem Theresa King presents a city proclamation recognizing John Godwin (center) and Justin Martin of “Duck Dynasty” during the pair’s appearance at Ducks in High Cotton, a benefit for Plainview FFA scholarships. less

Doug McDonough/Plainview Herald Mayor Pro Tem Theresa King presents a city proclamation recognizing John Godwin (center) and Justin Martin of “Duck Dynasty” during the pair’s appearance at Ducks in High ... more

With ‘Duck Dynasty,” what you see is what you get

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When it comes to the Robertson family on A&E’s popular reality program “Duck Dynasty,” “what you see is what you get.”

So says John Godwin and Justin Martin, the only two regular cast members who are not part of the deeply religious Louisiana family.

“With the Robertsons, it’s ‘Faith, Family and then fill in the blank,’” explains Godwin has he spoke to an attentive crowd Saturday at the Ducks in High Cotton benefit for FFA scholarships.

He and Martin came to Plainview at the invitation of the Plainview FFA Alumni Association, and they spent a large part of Saturday evening laughing, joking and sharing their faith during the program at Wayland’s Laney Center. The rest of the time, Martin seemed to be bent over trying to pull grass burrs and weed seeds from his socks and fabric-covered athletic shoes after spending that afternoon hunting dove. “Why didn’t somebody tell me I needed with wear jeans and boots, and not shorts and these tennis shoes? I guess I’ll just have to burn ‘em,” he lamented.

Nonetheless, the pair reported a highly successful afternoon hunt. Responding to an audience questions, Martin said ducks remain his favorite animal to hunt, but dove is his favorite wild game to eat. “I’m not that picky. I love to hunt and fish. That’s a great thing about working at Duck Commander, instead of hunting 45 days a year, I get to do it about 100 days, and even get paid for it.”

Godwin, who has been on the Duck Commander staff since 2002 - he’s shipping manager, builds duck calls and manages supplies - said the program’s message of the importance of the entire cast’s Christian faith has been widely accepted by show fans as well as the vast majority of people across the country. “You don’t get to see on the news all the good people we meet. Out there, people are really respective of what we say. It’s always the squeaky wheels which get on TV, but that’s not a true picture of what we see.”

The Robertsons have been espousing the same message about the importance of Christian faith long before “Duck Dynasty” premiered in March 2012. Earlier this year, A&E filmed its 100th episode and “rumor has it that we have 30 more (episodes), which all I can say to that is ‘ye haw!’” added Martin. “If it’s just the same, I’d like this to go on for another five or six years.”

However, Godwin added, “Faith is a lot of what we do, and if they ever try to stop that, well then it’s ‘see you later,’ because we’re gone.”

And yes, Martin says, the folks on “Duck Dynasty” really build duck calls. “We’ve got calluses on our fingers to prove it,” he adds. Three years ago, the eight-member staff of Duck Commander was turning out 200,000 to 250,000 duck calls each year. But demand exploded to over a million orders last year, which forced the company to add staff which now build the duck calls after extensive training.

Both Godwin and Martin attend services at White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, Louisiana, with members of the Robertson family. Phil and Alan Robertson are church elders.

A former rodeo bull rider, Godwin admits that he was running in a pretty rough crowd and drinking too much before his Christian conversion. His wife Paula - they’ve been married since 1989 - tried to get Godwin to start going to church again and straighten out his life. At the time Godwin was working at a paper mill, and to placate his wife and to perhaps get a new duck call from Phil Robertson as hunting season was approaching, he began attending their church.

Once he began listening to the messages delivered during the sermons, and outside the services from the Robertsons and others, he came to realize that “every evil thing we had ever done can be wiped clean by the blood of Jesus. Phil always stresses that the two great commandments are to love God, and to love thy neighbor as thyself, and that when we mess up, everything is covered.” As a result, Godwin was baptized by his Christian bull riding buddy at 1 a.m. Jan. 21, 1996 - 19 years ago. He worked part time for Duck Commander for two years before going to work full time.

Godwin and his wife have one daughter, Johanna or “Joey” who is a student at Louisiana Tech.

Martin was “born and raised in church.” His grandfather was an Assembly of God preacher. “He had a drug problem as a kid,” Godwin interjected. “He was drug to church every Sunday.”

Martin gecame acquainted with Willie Robertson while working in a sporting goods store and starting going to Robertson’s home to play poker. “He never beat me up with the Bible, but you can see Jesus in just the way he and the rest of the family lives.”

Willie Robertson encouraged Martin to read the Gospel of John, saying that’s a good place to start. “What really got to me was Acts 2:38-39, where it says to repent and be baptized.”

Martin and his brother were both baptized on Mother’s Day 2009, “which made it a very special day for my mother. When the invitation started, I went up to the front and my brother just followed me up there.”

Speaking directing to the students attending Saturday’s benefit, Martin stressed the importance of a higher education. “I breezed through the first four years of college, but man did graduate school get tough,” he said. “The big thing to remember is not to be afraid to ask for guidance and help. Realize that you’re going to screw up. Just deal with it. The true measure of an individual is how they pick themselves up to go on from there. Don’t be afraid of college, but take it for what it’s worth.”

Although he still considers himself to be a kid, Martin said he just turned 30. “Whether it’s in college, or in life, you need to learn who you can lean on for support, and not to ever be afraid to take your problems to the man upstairs.”

While each episode of “Duck Dynasty” is true to life, both Godwin and Martin say it takes about 50 to 60 hours per week to film each 22-minute show. “Seems like there’s either a car honking, a plane flying over, somebody yelling as they drive by, or something else that’s always making too much noise,” Godwin explains. Not too long ago, a large blowfly got loose in the duck call room and the guys had fun shooting at it with toy guns firing rubber projectiles. “Don’t be surprised if that shows up in a future episode,” Martin says.

His favorite episode involved his own bachelor’s party, leading up to his recent marriage to girlfriend Brittany. “I’ve always wanted to shoot off a cannon and I finally got to do that. In fact, we took several takes. I’ve shot a .50-caliber rifle and a lot of other guns, but never a cannon before that. Boom! That’s something else.” Brittany doesn’t welcome to notoriety that comes with her husband being on the program. “She’s not into having people jumping in front of us taking pictures, or stopping us to ask for autographs or talk.”

Godwin recalls racing highly modified lawnmowers (“you probably can cut five yards a day when you have a lawnmower that does 80 mph”) and an episode involving hot tubs.

At the urging of the audience, Godwin was coaxed into making his black panther howl, the sound of a truck and repeating the phrase “ham-samwich.”

Neither Martin nor Godwin could offer help for PHS students wanting Sadie Robertson as their homecoming date - “You’ll have to take that up with her boyfriend.” They were not FFA members while in school. “We don’t have an FFA chapter in our town. Northern Louisiana is an outdoor sports area with very little agriculture. But one of our coworkers is Greg Taylor from Huntsville, Texas, and he’s got a picture on his desk from FFA of him showing a steer. He’s clean-cut in the photo, with short hair and clean shaven. Man, he’s changed.”

Taylor, Godwin, Martin and the Robertson men all sport long beards. Why? “Because I guess God gave us the ability to grow it, and it’s great camo when hunting,” Martin says.